When My Life Began
by K3R
Summary: So it's been a little over a month since Rapunzel and Eugene have been living in the Castle. It's Eugene's birthday and Rapunzel has made him something special. This is my first ever fanfiction. I do not pretend to be a good writer, I am merely doing this for fun.
1. Chapter 1

"I hope he likes it!" Rapunzel thought frantically as she finished wrapping her little parcel. It had been just over a month since Rapunzel had learned the truth about her parents, and both her and Eugene had moved into the castle. Rapunzel had some trouble adjusting to her new life with her new role of princess, but Eugene didn't seem to have much trouble. He always felt that he was meant to live in a castle. But nevertheless, he was always very understanding of Rapunzel.

This particular day happened to be very special, as it was Eugene's birthday. The parcel that she had been wrapping was for Eugene. She had been working on it almost since she had moved in to the castle. Naturally, she had all the art equipment that she desired and she was itching to do something creative. Eugene's birthday just happened to be coming up, and she decided to do something very special for him. She gathered up the package in her arms, gave Pascal a hopeful smile, and headed to Eugene's room in the castle, which was one room below hers.

After making the trip to his room, which was longer than one would think, she knocked on the door to his room. She didn't hear anything, so she slowly cracked the door open a tiny bit. He was still in bed! "Who sleeps past 8?" thought Rapunzel, who still had not managed to sleep in past 7:15. She found some pebbles on the floor that the royal maids had, thankfully, neglected to sweep up. She looked in through the crack in the door and started throwing the tiny rocks at his bed. She giggled as he started to move and groan.

"Eugene," she whispered, "guess what today is?" Just then, a sound that resembled a closing door behind her made her jump and turn around. Before she could find the source, she found herself whisked off the floor. The perpetrator was none other than Eugene Fitzherbert, still in his pajamas. She squealed and, seeing that she was in her best friend's arms, wrapped her arms around his neck in an awkward hug.

"I keep telling these maid people that I don't need a wake-up call!" Eugene pretend-angrily grumbled, "who's the crazy person who keeps ruining my beauty sleep?" He pretended like he was going to drop her, like a father would his young child, which caused Rapunzel to giggle uncontrollably. "Blondie, what are you doing in my room?"

"Well, if you don't want a birthday present, then I guess I'll take this – "

But she didn't finish her sentence. Eugene set her on the floor and wrapped her in a real hug, which she couldn't help but enjoy. He kissed her forehead as she wished him a happy birthday. They both sat on his now empty bed as she handed him the gift.

It was fairly thin and flexible. "Rapunzel, you really didn't have to – "

"Well, I did. So open it." Rapunzel said with a smile.

Eugene opened his present and found a book with leather binding. He opened it to the first page to see drawings of Rapunzel, Eugene, Pascal, Maximus, and several others. In the center of all this was the title, "When My Life Began." Eugene flipped through the book until Rapunzel's hand came to rest on his. "Don't," she began, "I wanted us to go through it together."

Eugene placed his free hand on top of hers, then agreed. "Thank you," he said, "it's perfect."

Rapunzel replied, "You're welcome. Do you want to start going through it now?"

Eugene's response was immediate: "Absolutely."


	2. The First Page: Rapunzel's memories

THE FIRST PAGE – A look Rapunzel's thoughts

Rapunzel was surprised at how nervous she was as Eugene opened to the first page. She had been so confident that he would love his present as she was creating it, and even as she was giving it to him, but watching him as he scanned the page was nerve-wracking. What if he didn't like it? She knew he cared for her now, but what if he thought she was a bad artist or writer? Would that change anything? And why, oh WHY did she care about what he thought so much? She scolded herself for letting the thoughts enter her head. Why should they? Surely he cared about more than her art ability. Why would it change anything, even if he didn't like it?

Eugene was a little surprised to get such a gift. Since they had lived in the castle, Rapunzel had mentioned Gothel maybe twice. She seemed to want to avoid the subject of her old life entirely. He didn't blame her. Being ripped from the one world she had ever known and being forced into this princess role could not have been easy. After glancing at her giant – could they be nervous? – green eyes, his own brown eyes slowly moved down to the first page of the book.

Rapunzel had drawn the tower that she had lived in for 18 years (minus one day) of her life, with her 70 feet of golden hair dangling out the window. She allowed a small smile to make an appearance on her face. After all, not all the memories from her tower were bad. She had not been back since she and Eugene left that day that her hair turned from golden to brown. Her hand reached up to her chocolate locks, seemingly of its own accord. Remembering that terrible day when she almost lost her best friend in the universe, Eugene, and the day that she did lose the woman she once called "mother," was in fact painful. She'd been distracting herself lately to avoid thinking about it.

She snuggled in next to Eugene and he obligingly put his arm around her shoulder. She let a single tear fall in remembrance of Gothel, while Eugene could not see her face. He would never understand her sadness in losing her. In her mind, whether it was true or not, Gothel had cared for her. Perhaps it was more that she cared for the magic that resided in her, but she chose to remember her as well as she could, under the circumstances. Because what choice did she have? She would go insane if she allowed herself to think that she spent 18 years with a woman who had no good inside.

Eugene read the first page out loud, the first page introduced Rapunzel and Gothel, but Eugene noticed that there were virtually no descriptions about Rapunzel herself, except her golden hair and green eyes. "You didn't mention how beautiful you are." Eugene commented, gazing into Rapunzel's remarkably green eyes.

Rapunzel went red and replied, "Gothel never said that about me."

"What else could she possibly say? There's nothing bad to be said about you."

"Sloppy, underdressed, immature, clumsy, gullible, naive, grubby, ditzy, vague – "

"Hold up there, Princess! She told you all that?" he asked, with look that was a mixture between confusion, and sadness.

"She also said I was kind of chubby – " She couldn't continue on with her sentence because Eugene had broken into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

"She said that to YOU?" Eugene took a moment to compose himself and glanced at her, and realized that she was bright red, with not a hint of laughter in her face. "You can't… I mean, you didn't BELIEVE her, did you?"

"I… What do you mean?"

"Rapunzel, do you honestly believe a word that woman said to you?"

"When you live your entire life being told that something is true, it's hard to not believe it."

Eugene didn't know what to say. How could she believe any of that garbage? Well, maybe she was a bit naive, and let's face it, who wouldn't be clumsy with 70 feet of hair? Eugene was thinking, "Her self image must be completely contorted. What does she see when she looks in a mirror?"

"Look at me," Rapunzel slowly turned her head and sad eyes to look Eugene in the face. "Not a word Gothel said about you was true, Rapunzel. You are beautiful. I've never…" he stopped midsentence, not knowing what to say. He wished he could express all his feelings to her. How much he cared about her. How much it hurt him that Gothel had even suggested such things were true. He touched his forehead to hers, hoping she could feel all that he was trying to convey to her. "You know I care about you, right?"

Rapunzel looked into his brown eyes that she had grown so fond of. She saw love there: Something she rarely, if ever, saw in Gothel's eyes. She saw that he was telling her the truth. Although it may not make things easier, and it may not fix all the problems, she knew that he thought the world of her. She slowly nodded her head, "yes," and felt a small half-smile appear on her face.

He kissed her perfect little button nose and pulled back a little bit. "Listen, Blondie. I know that we just barely got through the first page, but I've not had breakfast yet, and I'm starving. Can we pick this up later?"

Rapunzel chuckled at his sudden change in mood and agreed. Hand-in-hand, they walked to breakfast together.


	3. The First Chapter: Rapunzel's Childhood

THE SECOND PAGE – Enter Eugene

Eugene and Rapunzel returned to her room momentarily to pick up Pascal before heading to the kitchens for breakfast. Rapunzel's glowing face told Pascal that her gift had indeed been a success. Rapunzel held out her hand to the little bedside table that was Pascal's home, and he crawled up her arm to his rightful place on her shoulder. Then the trio then proceeded to breakfast.

At breakfast, they met with the King and Queen of Corona. The married couple wished him a happy birthday, and invited the three friends to sit down. A plate was even given to Pascal for his grapes, orange slices, and bits of cheese. The King and Queen told Rapunzel that she could have the day off from whatever lessons were scheduled for that day (being a princess was NOT always easy), and spend it with Eugene. Both Rapunzel and Eugene were delighted, and started thinking of ways they would like to spend the day. When the King and Queen asked what their plans were, Eugene spoke first, telling them about Rapunzel's gift, and saying that he would love to go read it with her in the royal gardens.

Rapunzel blushed and replied, "Don't you want to do something a little bit more exciting on your birthday than read a silly book?"

Eugene winked at her and intentionally over-dramatically said, "What else would be more exciting than sitting down and enjoying the best birthday present ever with the most amazing person in the world?"

Rapunzel caught the tone in his voice, rolled her eyes, and elbowed him in the side, causing him to pretend like she caused some major damage. "Knock it off, Fitzherbert. Be realistic, what do you want to do today?"

"I think a walk in the garden sounds perfect," came his reply.

Rapunzel ran up to her room to place Pascal back on his cushion on the bedside table, and met Eugene back in his room. She asked him if he was ready to go, and she saw that he was putting Rapunzel's present to him in his trusty satchel. He actually wanted to read it with her! The thought made the butterflies in her stomach take flight, and she was quite sure her face turned pink. She bit her lip, and laced her fingers through his. They headed down to the royal gardens hand-in-hand.

Once in the garden, the young couple wandered around for several minutes. Rapunzel commented on practically every flower, while Eugene pretended to pay attention. After a while, he added in his voice to the conversation: "Hey, Blondie - "

"Eugene, one of these days, you're going to have to stop calling me 'Blondie,' seeing as I've not had blonde hair for about a month now."

"Fine, Brunette, do you want to sit down?"

"Sure." Rapunzel moved over to a bench that was near some pink roses and sat down. Eugene, however, raised an eyebrow at her. "What?" asked Rapunzel, with a half smile.

"I was hoping for a little bit more of an exciting location for this rendezvous of ours." Replied Eugene, with a hint of the Smolder coming to the surface.

"What do you mean?" Rapunzel asked, humoring him in his playful mood.

Eugene then glanced upwards, and jumped straight up in the air and was just able to get his hands around a thick branch on the tree they were standing under. He hoisted himself onto the branch and, after a minute or so of pulling his body up, had his legs up on the branch. He reached up and grabbed another branch to steady himself, and slowly stood up. He then proceeded to bounce a little bit on the said branch. When he was sure it was secure, he called down to Rapunzel, "Come on up, Blondie. It's safe"

Rapunzel eyed the branch, wearily. "There's no way I'm going to be able to get myself up there."

"That's what I'm here for," answered Eugene, his eyes shining mischievously. He waited for her to get her feet on the trunk in a decent position, which didn't take as long as one would expect (especially considering that she was barefoot – she never did come to understand others' desire to wear shoes).

Eugene braced himself on a near branch, and reached his hand down to help Rapunzel up. Together, Eugene and Rapunzel sat on their branch. For several seconds, they were content to just look into each other's eyes. Both were thinking about how blessed they were to have found each other. Once Rapunzel realized that he was looking at her with the same intensity that she was looking at him, she turned her face away, sure she was blushing – she tended to do that a lot around Eugene, whether she liked it or not.

Eugene gently placed his hand under her chin and directed her face to look at him. He smiled and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Do you want to look at this new book I just got? I'm really excited about it."

Rapunzel, once Eugene's hands dropped back to the branch, snuggled into his shoulder as an affirmative. He opened the book to the first page once again, and decided to start over. He read about Gothel and her manipulative personality. He read about Rapunzel's childhood, about all she did while she was passing the time. It was a brief synopsis of her early life, but he drank it in like one who had never had water before.

Like previously mentioned, Rapunzel rarely, if ever, even mentioned her life before meeting Eugene. Thus, he was learning things about her that she'd never revealed before. So many of his curiosities were put to rest, and his understanding of the girl that he loved grew tremendously.

Rapunzel looked on, anxiously. She was revealing pieces of her life that she'd never revealed to anyone, and she hoped he would take it well. He snuggled closer to him, and he obligingly pulled her closer.

When he was done with the first few pages, describing Rapunzel's early life, he lessened his grip on Rapunzel's shoulder, which made her nervous. But he only released her enough so he could look into her eyes. The beautiful, precious girl sitting next to him did not just pop into existence as she is now: the woman he had grown to care about more than he ever thought possible. She was born. She was an infant. A toddler. A child. A teenager. And now, a woman. The beautiful gift she had given him had given him insight into that. He was honored that she would give him such an intimate gift.

A small smile colored his face and he kissed her. He hoped the kiss would express everything he was feeling: the joy, the excitement, the wonder, and other feelings he couldn't put to words if he tried. He ended the kiss gently, leaving his forehead touching hers.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Rapunzel smiled and cuddled in closer to the man that she felt so strongly about, only partially understanding how much the gift meant to him. "You've still got quite a ways to go," she reminded him.

Eugene responded with a smile of his own and continued to secretly treasure the precious information, and love, he'd already been given. For now, he was content with what he was given. They would read more together later.


End file.
